Hot Tap Flows Creatively On
There are now more details on Dean Stalham’s progress from the Hot Tap Theatre to his new venture, Pen to Paper Productions. This new project connects creative talent with real opportunities to share their work – giving overlooked writers, filmmakers, poets, and performers real platforms to reach audiences they deserve.
Their stated values are: inclusivity – every creative voice deserves to be heard, empowerment – championing those creating outside the mainstream, authenticity – celebrating art that speaks truth, and opportunity – if you’ve got art, they promise to find it a wall, stage, screen, or page.
THE PEOPLE
At the helm of this project are Dean Stalham and Francis Saunders, both well-known to Hastings and St Leonards co-residents,
Stalham is a self-taught artist, playwright, and community arts organiser from North London. His acclaimed plays – God Don’t Live on a Council Estate, Senti-Mental, Sporadicity, Bobby’s Girl, If the Cap Fits, and Barred – portray working-class life with honesty and compassion. His work has been staged at the Union Theatre and The Hen & Chickens, and featured at the Royal Court and Hampstead Theatre.
Saunders is a British actor, writer, director, and producer from North London whose work spans theatre, film, and television. Starting as an actor, he went on to write and direct award-winning short films including Senior Moments, The Window Box, Busy Day, The Silence and Baited. He has directed A Good Night Out and produced projects such as Baited and the TV series Treasure Quest.
Together they bring over twenty years of experience in the charity sector, guided by the simple belief that creativity can change lives.
Three great theatres have very generously offered space to put on new plays – The Stables Theatre in Hastings, the iconic Old Red Lion and The Hen & Chickens in London – which has given them a powerful platform for original plays to debut here before taking them to the capital.
Play slots are already filled until 2027, and they are now inviting submissions of full-length plays written by brave new voices. The chosen work will be fully produced by Pen to Paper Productions, and showcased both in Hastings and London.
NEW PLAY PERFORMANCES
Stalham’s Sporadicity is an award-winning Time Out‘Critics’ Choice’ play. It dives head-first into sex, drugs, and violence as raw forces, rather than tired clichés. Gritty, poetic, and unflinchingly real, it stars Francis Saunders and Claire Maria Fox. It features an original salsa soundtrack by MOBO Award-winner Pat ‘HaveMercy’ Lecock, with live percussion from world-renowned Jeff Skantlebury. It will be staged live at The Stables at the beginning of June (link below), and another date at the Old Red Lion, Angel, London has been added in July.
Sporadicity will show at The Stables on 5 and 6 June, and at The Old Red Lion, Islington, on 17 and 18 July. Full details: pentopaperproductions.co.uk. Stables: stablestheatre.co.uk
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